£1.6m fine for production company after Star Wars door crushed Harrison Ford like 'blunt guillotine' on film set

A production company has been fined £1.6m for health and safety breaches after film star Harrison Ford was crushed by a hydraulic door that fell like a “blunt guillotine” millimetres from his face on the Star Wars set.

Foodles Production (UK) Ltd, which is owned by Disney, was handed the penalty at Aylesbury Crown Court after admitting two breaches of health and safety law. The Health and Safety Executive said it was likely to be “the most a film production company has ever been fined”.

The door was operated by a person sitting behind a screen and pressing the buttonCredit:
Press Association

The door had been designed to mimic the action of a door on the original Star Wars set. It was operated remotely by a special effects operator who could not see the actor and shut it upon a signal from a spotter - a policy the judge described as a “crazy approach” to health and safety.

"Had the wrong button been pressed it would have continued to crush down on Mr Harrison Ford. It's just incredible that so much was left to chance." Judge Francis Sheridan

Only the quick reaction of a prop operator who hit the emergency stop button prevented the door from continuing to crush Ford.

Harrison Ford as Han SoloCredit:
AP

At a previous hearing, the court was told he could have been killed in the incident at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire in June 2014.

Staff reacted quickly to engage an emergency stop button but as the door took just 1.6 seconds to close fully, they were not quick enough to prevent it coming down with "enormous" force and stopping at about 90% shut, prosecutor Andrew Marshall said.

It was halted "about eight inches from the floor", pinning the actor down.

He required surgery to screw together the fractured tibia and fibula bones in his left leg and plastic surgery on a "deep laceration" to his left hand.

Charles Gibson QC, defending, admitted there was a "failure in communication" between the production team and Ford.